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When the clock ran out at Rochester High School Friday night, the West Greene Pioneers football team ended a historic season.

The 39-14 loss to Rochester was West Greene’s first playoff game since 1993. Although the season ended in disappointment, West Greene head coach Rod Huffman had come full-circle.

“It was a remarkable year,” Huffman said. “I’m very proud of the guys, and the coaching staff. We put together a pretty good run.”

West Greene football has not seen a lot of success in its history. Before this season, the Pioneers hadn’t been to the playoffs in 24 years. In 1999, Tom Domen took over as head coach, and resigned after just one game.

Despite all of West Greene’s struggles, Huffman was not hesitant to take the job when the position opened up after the 2014 season.

“My history has been with starting programs,” Huffman said. “I’ve been involved with two programs that were starting from scratch, and that’s kind of the way I viewed it when I applied [at West Greene]. …It was almost like starting a program from scratch, and I had a lot to learn.”

Huffman was born in Waynesburg. In the late 1960s, he attended West Greene, where he was the quarterback of the football team, played basketball and ran track his senior year, before graduating in 1970.

After high school, Huffman worked in the coal mines for close to nine years. In 1983, he moved to Lynchburg, Virginia, and then to Rustburg, Virginia, before working on a horse farm in Lorton, Virginia, for four years. After leaving Lorton, Huffman moved to Augusta, Georgia, where he stayed for more than 25 years. In his 30-plus years down south, Huffman coached football in his spare time.

In 2014, Huffman returned to Greene County. He volunteered as an assistant coach for a season, before taking charge.

Today, Huffman describes himself as a “players coach.”

“I’ve been able to change, I’ll put it that way,” Huffman said. “When I first coached, I was probably pretty hot-headed, pretty critical, I could see every mistake [the players] made, trying to push them through perfection.”

Huffman said that as he gets older, he has adjusted his methods for getting through to players.

“Now it’s more of a teaching thing,” Huffman said. “You take them to the side, and you love them.”

Sophomore player Ben Jackson said Huffman has a gentle personality and cares deeply about his athletes.

“He’s like a giant teddy bear,” Jackson said. “He’s very friendly, he loves all of the players.”

For Huffman, faith helps him gain perspective when coaching.

“I think it keeps me on an even keel,” Huffman said. “Not to get overwhelmed by emotions. …Every game is going to have adversities, and if you don’t show a confidence to your kids, they look over to the sidelines and you spaz on them, that directly affects them, I believe.”

The praise that Huffman receives as a head coach is also echoed by some of his head coaching colleagues.

Mapletown Head Coach George Messich has known Huffman for close to 40 years.

Messich has always seen Huffman as a guy who does things the right way.

“I’ve always had great respect for Rod just throughout the years,” Messich said. “I always thought Rod was a straight-shooting guy who tried to do everything by the book, and I just always thought he would be successful no matter what he did.”

Despite falling short in the playoffs, the West Greene team recognizes that they accomplished something special this season.

After time ran out on West Greene’s magical season, the team received a sendoff. They got an escort that began in Rogersville and ran all the way to the Waynesburg University baseball and tennis courts. It was the community’s way of commemorating the football team for all it had accomplished.

Reflecting on displays like this, Huffman is proud to be a member of the West Greene community.

“I’m so thankful for the people at West Greene, the administration there, our families, our kids, their parents,” he said. “The support group that is behind this group…West Greene’s just a special place. There are many people who would say that it’s very remote, but the people here are the finest people that I’ve ever been around in my life.”

Huffman is fulfilling his passion at the place where it all began.

“It’s good to be home,” he said. “It’s good to be doing what I love to do, in a very special place such as West Greene.”